BOSTON 
Most Red Sox fans probably never heard of Pete Kozma before Wednesday night, but they certainly know him now, thanks in part to the umpires. The Cardinals shortstop made two costly errors in the first two innings to help the Red Sox take a 5-0 lead in Game 1 of the World Series. The Sox went on to win, 8-1, at Fenway Park.

With runners on first and second and one out in the bottom of the first, David Ortiz grounded to second baseman Matt Carpenter, who threw to Kozma covering second base. Kozma may have had time to turn an inning-ending double play, but he dropped the throw with Dustin Pedroia sliding at his feet. Second base umpire Dana DeMuth ruled Pedroia out, claiming Kozma had the ball long enough and lost it while trying to take it out of his glove to throw to first.

Red Sox manager John Farrell immediately charged out of the dugout to argue the call, and replays showed that the throw hit off Kozma's glove and he never had control.

Farrell asked DeMuth to check with his fellow umpires to see what they thought, and DeMuth did. The five other umpires agreed that DeMuth had the call wrong. DeMuth then ruled Pedroia safe, loading the bases.

“He saw what he saw,” Kozma said of DeMuth. “I don't know why they all got together, he was right there.”

“It was a big part of the game,” Sox catcher David Ross said. “It's going to turn the game. If they call him out, it's a totally different game in my opinion. Luckily, they got it right.”

The reversal brought Sox fans to their feet and St. Louis manager Mike Matheny out of the dugout to argue, but the reversal stayed. Mike Napoli then swatted a three-run double to left-center.

“That's not a play I've ever seen before,” Matheny said of the reversal, “and I'm pretty sure there were six umpires on the field that had never seen that play before, either. It's a pretty tough time to debut that overruled call in the World Series.”

“Good for them,” Ross said. “You've got to give a lot of credit to guys under that spotlight and scrutiny and know all about this media coverage and to not have an ego and go up and say, 'Hey, did I miss that? Did I make a mistake on that?' That's a huge character trait, and those guys did a good job.”

Then Ross added with a smile, “I'm trying to get calls (from the umpires).”

In the second inning, Kozma booted Shane Victorino's grounder to the shortstop hole to load the bases with one out. Pedroia followed with a run-scoring single, and Ortiz drove in Boston's fifth run with a sacrifice fly that would have been his second grand slam this postseason if Carlos Beltran hadn't banged into the right field wall and reached into the Cardinals bullpen to grab it.

This was Kozma's first season as a regular in the majors. In 139 regular-season games at short for St. Louis, the 2007 first-round pick made only nine errors and posted a .984 fielding percentage. He's in the lineup for his glove, not his bat. Kozma batted ninth in the St. Louis order Wednesday and hit only .217 during the regular season. He was 1 of 15 in the NLCS and went 0 for 3 Wednesday.

“I never played here before,” Kozma said. “It's a different surface, but I had the ball in my glove both times and didn't come up with it.”

Errors by Kozma and Detroit shortstop Jose Iglesias in the ALCS have shown why Farrell has stuck with Stephen Drew at short in the postseason. Drew may not hit, but he makes the plays in the field. Drew was only of only three major league shortstops who played at least 120 games and committed fewer errors than Kozma during the regular season. Drew made only eight in 124 regular-season games. Colorado's Troy Tulowitzki made eight in 121 games, and Tampa Bay's Yunel Escobar committed seven in 153 games.

Ortiz hit a two-run homer in the seventh after Pedroia reached on a two-out throwing error by third baseman David Freese. The Cardinals ended up making three errors, not counting allowing Drew's pop up to drop safely, matching the number of errors they committed in their previous 11 games this postseason. It was only the second time St. Louis has made as many as three errors in a game all season. In 162 regular-season games, the Cardinals made only 75 errors, tied for the fourth fewest in the majors.